Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Georgia Giants

I'm not interested in the fish myself, but a friend is getting some "Georgia Giants" for his pond. What's the scoop on these? Are they any different than the typical bluegill X green sunfish cross? Or maybe part of the cross is a redear (shellcracker)?

I can't see much else that could be part of the hybrid other than green sunfish, bluegill and redear so I'm wondering if the producer is just really good at marketing his product.

If you don't want to offend the producer you can email me direct.

From all the info that I have found they are just a bluegill X green sunfish hybrid. The "Georgia Giant" moniker is just what you said, a marketing ploy. Check out the below URL's
http://msucares.com/pubs/pub1893.htm and

http://www.pondboss.com/myweb/_disc6/00000894.htm

Larry

Ken Holyoak of Ken's hatchery is a born saleman. It's worth your time calling him but have 30 minutes becauce he loves to talk about his fish. He says his hybrid is not the standard cross. I know several pond owners here in Georgia who have stocked Georgia Giants and swear by them. Most posters here will recommend coppernose bream. I tried to have it both ways, I stocked Georgia Giants last fall and copppernose this spring. The Georgia Giants which went in last October have grown a substancial amount over the winter and are already fun to catch. Three years from now I might be posting why not to stock them!

Don't get me started with Ken Holyoak, just call any GA DNR fisheries office. To his credit he has open some minds about differnet management techniques. I don't make a living by cutting down others so I will just say this. I have seen the GA Giants stocked in many ponds and they usually revert back to green sunfish in a few years so yes they are the typical hybrid in my opinion and I do not recommend them if your goals are to have a quality bass fishery. If you don't mind draining the pond every few years then I beleive them to be more agressive than coppernose bluegill.

Thanks for the info. No discredit meant for Ken Holyoak. Just wanted some feedback on the hybrids. I got a copy of the catalog and find it very good reading. It's too bad some other fish farmers out there aren't as personable and helpful as Ken. If they were they would probably be as successful.

Georgia Giant is a marketing moniker. The fish is a cross between female green sunfish and male bluegill. In Texas, these fish will approach one pound. 90-95% are males, the rest are females with limited viability of their eggs. They can't cross with each other, but will reproduce with other species of sunfish, thus yielding an inferior Fx cross. Marketers claim the fish will grow up to 2.5 to 5 pounds. That's a lie. There may have been one freak fish grow to five pounds, but expect yours to be as large as a pound. Stocked with catfish, hybrids may be a good choice. But, count them out as forage for bass.